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United States Patent | 6,112,381 |
Dischler ,   et al. | September 5, 2000 |
The inventive method provides highly desirable hand to various different types of fabrics through the initial immobilization of individual fibers within target fabrics and subsequent treatment through abrasion, sanding, or napping of at least a portion of the target fabric. Such a procedure includes "nicking" the immobilized fibers thereby permitting the fibers to produce a substantially balanced strength of the target fabric in the fill and warp directions while also providing the same degree of hand improvements as obtained with previous methods. Furthermore, this process also provides the unexpected improvement of non-pilling to synthetic fibers as the "nicking" of the immobilized fibers results in the lack of unraveling of fibers and thus the near impossibility of such fibers balling together to form unwanted pills on the fabric surface. Fabrics treated by this process are also contemplated within this invention.
Inventors: | Dischler; Louis (Spartanurg, SC); Henson; Jimmy B. (Pacolet Mills, SC); Milliken; Roger (Spartanburg, SC) |
Assignee: | Milliken & Company (Spartanburg, SC) |
Appl. No.: | 252513 |
Filed: | February 18, 1999 |
Current U.S. Class: | 26/28; 26/29R; 28/169 |
Intern'l Class: | D06C 011/00 |
Field of Search: | 26/28,29 R,27,30,37,69 C 28/169,162,163 427/277,271,278,226,289,356,359,368 156/154,281 |
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2896304 | Jul., 1959 | Peroni | 28/169. |
2926414 | Mar., 1960 | Weiss et al. | 28/169. |
3549398 | Dec., 1970 | Watson | 26/28. |
3650800 | Mar., 1972 | Reiner | 28/169. |
3894318 | Jul., 1975 | Ito et al. | 26/28. |
3973359 | Aug., 1976 | Spencer et al. | 51/75. |
3980549 | Sep., 1976 | Grutza | 204/16. |
4463483 | Aug., 1984 | Holm | 26/29. |
4468844 | Sep., 1984 | Otto | 26/28. |
4512065 | Apr., 1985 | Otto | 26/28. |
4608128 | Aug., 1986 | Farmer et al. | 204/16. |
5473801 | Dec., 1995 | Straube et al. | 26/33. |
5505739 | Apr., 1996 | Montesano | 26/28. |
5752300 | May., 1998 | Dischler | 26/28. |
5815896 | Oct., 1998 | Dischler | 26/28. |
TABLE ______________________________________ Fabric Strength Pilling Run Warp Tensile Fill Tensile Warp/Fill Rating ______________________________________ 1 148 115 1.29 4.5 2 135 130 1.04 4.5 3 148 139 1.06 4.5 4 (Control) 146 93 1.57 4.0 5 (Control) 176 138 1.28 4.0 ______________________________________